Darryl Jones, who crashed a pensioner's mobility car after stealing it from his home

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A burglar who stole a pensioner’s mobility car which was later crashed into the Jaguar factory in Halewood was jailed.

Tearaway Daryl Jones, 20, stole the Vauxhall Insignia from the driveway of its owner on Colworth Road, Speke , in the early hours of May 13 last year.

The elderly and disabled owner woke at about 3am to find the car had gone and when he later asked a neighbour was told they had heard it “screeching” away.

Joanne Maxwell, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court yesterday that Jones, who lived with his grandad on Hindley Walk, Speke, was seen shortly after by police filling the car at a Shell garage, on Higher Lane, Halewood.

He raised their suspicions because he was wearing a hood and gloves on a warm night and when they turned around the Insignia drove off at high speed.

The car turned onto North Road, near the Jaguar factory, where police lost it as it was driving so fast before it smashed into a sign post and the factory’s perimeter fence.

Halewood, South Road, Halewood, Speke, Liverpool

The Vauxhall was left “embedded” in the fence, and was written off with both its front and back smashed in.

Ms Maxwell said the occupants jumped out and ran off and despite the police helicopter being called were not caught.

Jones’s DNA was recovered from the passenger side airbag, meaning he wasn’t driving, and he was brought from jail where he was being held on other burglary matters. He admitted aggravated vehicle taking, but denied burglary, saying he had been picked up by a friend and did not know the car was stolen, but as his trial was due to start he admitted burglary at the house.

Ms Maxwell said that Jones had been on a “burglary spree” and had spent most of the last year in jail for burglaries he carried out two nights before the crash.

She added that his victim was not able to get a new mobility vehicle after his Insignia, which he’d had just a month, was written off and that he had lost his “lifeline and independence”.

Ken Heckle, defending, said Jones came from a good family but had “gone off the rails” since leaving home and had “perhaps been led astray”.

Judge Alan Conrad, QC, jailed him for 14 months, banned him from driving for two years and ordered him to undertake an extended re-test.

He said: “The car was driven dangerously around the perimeter of the Jaguar factory and eventually crashed at considerable speed with a very substantial impact on the factory fence. You are 20 years of age but over the last 18 months you’ve accumulated a substantial criminal record leading to custodial sentences.”